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Friday, January 29, 2010

Bombay Meri Jaan, Alas!

The protagonist of cinema CID was a beat relaxed singing “Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, zara bachke-zara hatake, ye hai Bombay meri jaan”because he only had to save himself from bustling buses, trams, thugs and other worldly oddities; lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri would have been added some extra features in his city narrative song if possibly abled to foresee the current political projection against the non-Marathi speaking hacks in the city of Mumbai-especially against those hailing from north-India. Even after witnessing advances from the CID {1950’S} era to Gaman {late 1970’s, directed by Muzzaphar Ali} creates only subtle differences of plights-here a typical low end job searcher {Portrayed as Taxi driver in Cinema} from the rural hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh narrates the agony of his alienation on screen as “Sine me jalan aankon me toofan sa kyon hai, ish Sahar me har saksh pareshan sa kyon hai”-same grave uneasiness of adaptability in this unfriendly city.

The two decades journey through these songs reflect best the abnormalities of contemporary material life in the maxims city called Mumbai which for decades has been dreaming to be the worlds biggest financial destination before a normal flood drenched and messed this city to unmanageable scale; thanks to other contemporary divisive political agenda for late arrival, at least these two protagonist have been shaved from the atrocities of new linguistic ruling by the government which seems like its convergence to the wish lists of Thackrey’s. Compulsion of Marathi language for new entrant taxiwalas pioneered by the India’s political avantgarde Congress party which usually manifests deep secular and socialist temperaments-Ashok Chavan, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra hadn’t hesitated for a moment before the plan of its execution; remarkable passivity from centre also fueled this divisive spirit.

Being an ordinary Indian citizen, I am shocked to see little resistance against the political misadventurism being played on the land of Maharashtra-amazingly the plights of common Maratha folks cited as reason behind this which could be hardly a conceivable judgment. In2006-2008, Maharashtra saw 12,493 suicides, this is eighty five percent higher than the 6,745 suicides recording during 1997-1999; and the worst three-year period for any state, any time {P.Sainath, The Hindu, January 25th 2010. Despite the fact that since 2006, the state has been the focus of many lucrative initiatives, overall the amounts committed to fighting the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra exceeded Rs, 20,000 crore across 2006, 2007, 2008 {excluding financial leverages to the sugar barons}, yet that proved to be the worst three year period ever for any state at any time since the recording of farm data came into existence. How can an Aam Aadmi chosen to be laidback? Where gone these billions of rupees, was the amount so meager for brushing the fortunes of farming class in rural Maharashtra? The possible answer from political side would be a stretchy hush or tricky and trivial makeshift narratives that must floats without judging the gravity of matters.

Infact scenario in urban landscape have been equally distorted that became evident from six-seven man led suicidal terror attack in the city of Mumbai {November26, 2008} when the reality of security system came across the world…we kept loosing our precious lives {both civic and security personnel} in absence of proper counter terror planning and basic equipments till National Security Guards {NSG} took command over operation. Like most of Indians, I was also stick with the situation and keep viewing the news from different sources for entire three days of operation and felt irritation by the sluggish political decisions like calling NSG guards past midnight and later opening the doors of Hotel Taj to a second grade cinema maker to observe inferences for his next cheap blockbuster. Country felt the pain of attack on Mumbai, hardly matters that majority of them were non-Marathi speakers-I mean to say that politics of hatred blossomed in the time of void ness which is inherently challenging the ethos of democracy in India.

Personally and collectively it’s very shocking for me to see the name of Maharashtra for all the bad reasons that is strikingly contrast to its retro impression and contribution of Marathi peoples in nation making-from Bal Gangadhar Tilak, B.R.Ambedkar, Lata Mangeshkar &sisters, Vijay Tendulkar, Amol Palekar, Sunil Gavashkar to Sachin Tendulkar etc. Along with the other maligning affluent, Congress has to out speak about the motive behinds this ruling because peoples could be puzzled only to a limitation otherwise a culture of segmentation and bias would be institutionalized that indeed weaken the national spirit to the subversive level. Ashok Chavan, both at personnel and political level have degenerated the broad thinking from public scene-all fouls, from news sponsoring to linguistic hatredness.

The only credit goes to the ruling Congress party in there last three years rule in Maharashtra to conquer the some awards like OSCAR for Slumdog Millionaire which entirely canopied the city’s fifty-five percent slum reality and their inhuman nexus with capital in out rightly subversive way which for a while healed the depressions of recession struck western world. For them India transform only from a land of snake charmers to a repository of slum culture…definitely this is not our achievement nor it could improve the lives of deprived Marathi’s-they needed instead a consistent access to the rudimentary resources of life by having chances to dwell better with education, high end aspirations and careers instead of marching against their non-Marathi counterparts. Political spoilers must mind their action as Maharashtra including Mumbai is as much India as Delhi, Bihar, U.P, Kerala, Jammu Kashmir or any other parts. I am still firm that we all Indians have right to be a Mumbaikar…essentially we should think better for it. Atul Kumar Thakur January25th 2010, New Delhiatul_mdb@rediffmail.com

About Me

Atul K Thakur is a Journalist, Writer and Policy Practitioner, with specialisation in the interface of politics and economics. His interests of writing and research is quite diverse and reaches to the areas of international affairs, with special focus on South Asia.
As an author/editor, his latest book is "India since1947:Looking Back at a Modern Nation"/Niyogi Books, an anthology on modern India. Now, he is editing the next volume with keeping in mind, India in future -- and writing a book that will have bearing on the contemporary political and social history of South Asia.
As a journalist/columnist, he has written for publications include: The Hindu, The Pioneer, The Kathmandu Post, The Daily Star, Businessworld, Governance Now, Tehelka, The Friday Times, The Himalayan Times, Mainstream, Seven Sisters Post.
Contact: M: +91-9873160118 / summertickets@gmail.com.